Living with the Avengers

Another Day at the Tower

About 2 hours after lunch, and halfway into the movie, that Steve had started again, as he wasn't paying attention the first time it played, he heard mumbling from Skye, as she turned in her sleep. He turned the volume down a bit to try and hear what she was saying when her eyes shot open, and she sat up, taking deep breaths. He was afraid she was having another panic attack and was about to get up and try to help her, when he saw her take a deep breath and lay down again, facing the TV. He turned the volume up again, so she could hear it now too, and kept an eye on her as they continued to watch the show.

20 Minutes later Steve noticed that Skye was frowning very deeply at the TV, so he turned it down a bit while chuckling, then looked at her, as he asked what the matter was. Her eyes darted to him, with a bit of fear, as she realized that she was watching a movie with a grown-up, and said grown-up had noticed her expressions. Steve sighed and gave her a comforting smile, arching his eyebrow in question. Skye hesitated, but then asked anyway, "Why are you watching this old movie when it clearly confuses you more than me?" Steve chuckled at her question, shaking his head. He had not known that he was making it obvious, how much the movies he was watching, confused him, but clearly, Skye had noticed. Steve replied, "I am trying to catch up with time, by watching the movies people have recommended and said are the best, but they confuse me more than anything else." Skye looked thoughtful for a moment before sitting up, plastering the most serious face Steve had ever seen on a child so young, on her face, when saying, "Maybe you should watch the best hits of each year in chronological order, that way you can see the way movies built on each other, and not be so confused by watching something and having no idea where it came from. It's the same with music and books and all kinds of other things. Every year they build upon everything from the previous year, and those were built on the year before them, and so on, and so on. The way your watching is like trying to do 12th-grade math, after skipping grades 3 through 11. You won't be able to understand it as you have nothing to go on." Steve in all honesty could not wrap his head around the fact that this little girl could be so smart, and see things the way she did. Skye on the other hand was getting afraid, fearing she had overstepped and that was why Steven was just staring at her. She moved to lie down again, berating herself in her head for speaking up in front of an adult, telling them that there was a better way of doing things than what they were doing. She was so stupid and... The rest of her thoughts were cut off by a chuckle from Steve. She looked up at him, as he smiled at her. "You Skye, are one smart little girl, you know that? I never thought of it that way. Now I just have to find a list or something with the movies I need to watch and in which order." Skye gave him a small smile too, and spotting the tablet on the table next to him, she gestured to it, "I can make you one if you'd like?" Steve glanced at the tablet, then picked it up and handed it to her, "I would like that very much, but what to do in the meantime?" Skye smiled at him as she took the tablet, "put on The Lion King, it's from 1994, but still a treasure to this day." Steve shook his head, "I thought I was supposed to watch them in order?" Skye smiled, "Not this one" Steve chuckled, but found the movie and put it on anyway, a little surprised to find that it was an animated kids movie, but watched it anyway, with interest. Skye on the other hand, with difficulty because of her cast, started doing research on the tablet, as she did not know a lot about films from the 1940s, and started putting the list together for Steve, one movie at a time.

Clint came into the room, just after the scene where Scar sings his song Be Prepared with the hyenas, and was a little surprised to find a man of almost a hundred watching a kids movie, while Skye was on the tablet doing, what, he was not sure. He smiled as he entered the room, asking them what they were up to. Steve just said catching up and went back to watching; the movie taking all of his attention apparently. Skye, without looking up then said, "Steven hadn't seen it yet, which was a shame, so I decided to fix it." Clint started laughing at the scene, but joined Steve on the couch, as he asked Skye what she was doing. She once again without looking up, just said that she was working on a list for Steven, not mentioning what list as she wasn't sure if Steve wanted the others to know or not. Clint shook his head, but he was interested in knowing why Skye loved the movie so much, so he asked her why The Lion King. She stopped working then, just staring straight ahead of her at the wall, as she remembered the first time she had seen the movie. Clint immediately saw the shift in her body and mood and swore at himself for being the cause of her evaporating joy. It was then that she sighed; going back to the tablet, just saying that it was all they had at the orphanage. Clint understood that to some extent, they only had about 3 movies at the orphanage where he was, so they kept watching the same things over and over. He also knew that it wasn't the whole story, otherwise, Skye would not have reacted the way she did, but he let her be, not wanting to upset her any more than he already did. So he watched the movie with Steve instead, everyone else coming to join them one by one by one, as they finished whatever they were doing. And by the time Hakuna Matata was playing, Clint was full-on singing along, making Skye smile big as she kept working on the tablet, which of course was Clint's plan, and they all enjoyed seeing her smile and be happy.